


Banners Flying High and Screaming At The Sky

by auroreanrave



Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Drabble, F/F, Ficlet, Pregnancy, Rebuilding, Recovery, The Splendid Angharad Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-28 22:12:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6347620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auroreanrave/pseuds/auroreanrave
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Angharad doesn't remember almost falling.</p><p>(The AU where Angharad doesn't fall helping Max, because obviously.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Banners Flying High and Screaming At The Sky

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a silly little something that's been puttering around in my system since I first saw this gem of a movie. Angharad was my favourite of the Wives and my brain immediately came up with two or three different versions of how my precious baby Angharad could survive and make it to see her Green Place. This was the only version that wouldn't require a 10k rewriting of half of 'Fury Road' (spoilers: it still involved Angharad falling from the Rig). I hope you like this little look into what could have been (or indeed might be) at the Citadel.

_before_

Angharad doesn't remember falling.

She doesn't remember the warm slick of blood down her bandaged leg, the way it flopped like a dead fish against the side of the War Rig, the way the door creaked and split, bright sand in her eyes and wind in her hair.

She remembers getting pulled back in the War Rig, however. Capable and Cheedo and Dag, all of their hands on her, yanking her back inside, so fast and hard she couldn't catch her breath, body slamming against body, her eyes shining.

She remembers Furiosa's chastisement, her worry coloured as anger, her declaration that "we don't have time for idiots who want to die on the Fury Road", and Capable's hands warm and tethering in her own. She remembers the Mad One's smile, years later, his thumbs up at her scramble, her attempt, her scream against the dying of the light.

She remembers the rush of adrenaline in her belly, and the kick, and the song in her heart which screamed electric, a Valkyrie's roar of - of - of -

_I am alive._

 

_during_

And then and then and then -

Angharad hands the Vuvalini everything she has, her knowledge and her skills and her heart. The other girls follow her still, but they're growing like the dustflowers in her dreams and the vines in the Citadel. Capable with her fierce kindness and Toast with the steel in her veins and Dag with the ashes in her mouth turning to seeds and Cheedo's fear melting into power.

Angharad might be pregnant with a bastard's baby, but she feels the Sun in her veins as she moves along the convoy. She can't use a gun - well, she can, but it feels wrong in her hands, something born to kill, and she's had enough people saying that about her son - but she diverts attention and keeps an eye out for War Boys and kicks down several of the Bullet Farmer's best so they crush under the Fury Road.

She sees the fall of the War Rig and the moment when Furiosa, dying and burning and transforming, rips Joe's face off in a flash of red, and Cheedo screaming, "He's dead!". She's not sure how to feel, but then grips tight to the side of the rig to hold off on the tidal wave of nausea and joy.

She stumbles across to the Gigahorse, her baby kicking in her belly, and it's only moments later when everyone's on board save for the War Boy Nux, and the War Rig collapses behind them, that she thinks _I'm alive and that's a good thing._

 

 

_after_

The Citadel becomes a home.

The Mad One - Max, he lets Furiosa and the others know - leaves after they arrive. Furiosa doesn't know what to do for a while, and it isn't until after Angharad gives birth to a boy, a boy she names Kalosini, that they sit down, the Wives and Furiosa and the Vuvalini and plan.

Toast becomes a head of their Battle Crews, taking charge of the places left by the Bullet Farmer and the People Eater, using War Boys crews to crush the power vacuums left there. Angharad worries for the cold in her eyes, but she can only do so much. She still makes sure to hug her and make her play with Kal.

Capable spends her time with the people - she speaks to the poor, and to the hungry, to those without their limbs. She sits and listens, children crawling into her lap, and comes back to Furiosa and Angharad with their stories, their needs. Capable plans for water distribution, for better places for them to sleep and eat. She still dreams of Nux in the night.

The Dag walks around the gardens with the remaining Vuvalini, and they build bigger gardens. The Dag keeps a couple of seeds sewn into the sleeve of her dress at all times, even as her belly grows, and plants the rest. They have flowers and a fruit which looks like a bomb but is sweet and good when split open. The Dag calls her daughter Eirene after her grandmother, and the people of the Citadel eat well.

Cheedo grows with every day and spends time with the Milk Mothers and the War Boys. They're afraid to speak to her, to touch her, but soon she helps educate them, to give them a voice. The protests are few, and little blood is spilt, and Cheedo's stomach doesn't turn at it like she used to. She comes and rests her head in Angharad's lap sometimes, but she races into the sunlight with the young War Boys on her shoulders most days.

The Council of the Citadel grows - Angharad takes heed of her sisters and includes more voices. Everyone's spent so long under a shadow that it's hard to speak at first, but soon their whispers turn to calls. They face rivals from across the Wasteland and Furiosa leads their charges, Ace at her side, and Toast behind them both.

Angharad spends her days making sure they're all alright. That their world is still working. She teaches Kalosini about the world, about people. Later, she invites all the children for classes, makes the books available to those who want to learn about the world before. Miss Giddy is a warm presence at the back of her mind as she teaches.

The Wives become the Sisters.

On a clear night, when everyone is sleeping, Angharad takes her blankets and leaves her son sleeping, tucked under Cheedo's arm, and Furiosa sleeping in the bed they share, and steps out onto the balcony to see the stars. Her hands form the shape of a bird under the cascade of stars and her hair sweeps up behind her into the air like a lover's taunt, a standard for an army of one.

 _Not one_ , Angharad corrects. _One of many._

She thinks _I am alive and this might not be the Green Place but it's ours and that's good too._

**Author's Note:**

> Angharad's son is named 'Kalosini' because the idea that she named Immortan Joe's heir after an Anglicised spelling/pronunciation of the Greek word for 'kindness or goodness' was too fun to do, as was the idea that the Dag picked 'Eirene', the Greek word for 'peace' for her daughter's name.


End file.
